Accused killer of Derksen in court today

Trial begins exactly 26 years after teen's body found

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WINNIPEG -- The first-degree murder trial for the man accused of abducting and killing Winnipeg teenager Candace Derksen in November 1984 is set to begin today with preliminary motions.

It starts exactly 26 years to the day after the 13-year-old girl's frozen body was found inside an industrial shed, not far from where she went missing in Elmwood about two months before.

Mark Edward Grant, now 45, has pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to last six weeks.

The first three days are for preliminary motions. The trial before the jury doesn't begin until Thursday.

A jury was selected about 10 days ago.

Grant was arrested in 2007 after police reopened the investigation into Derksen's unsolved slaying. The teen was grabbed off the street on Nov. 30, 1984, bound with rope and left to freeze to death inside a shed.

Her body was found on Jan. 17, 1985 in a shed just south of the Nairn Street Overpass following an exhaustive search that included hundreds of Winnipeg citizens who volunteered their efforts.